I think the other thing with Wayne is his wider influence. Currently he is a lad few associate with Everton. Fergusan is even allowed to talk about how they "produced" him. Rooney hasn't helped us in that regard with some silly interviews in the past. That being said, him chalking up another 50 appearances for Everton and another 20 league goals over 2-3 years will slightly redress that balance.
Perhaps more importantly though if getting him back into the Everton family. He is a very wealthy man and will have enormous expertise to give to the next generation. You see a lot of Everton players who've come through return to the academy. You saw Ray Hall talk with such pride at lads he brought through going into the coaching of the academy (he mentioned Osman is now). There is something incredibly valuable to prospective parents and young recruits in having lads who were at our academy, made it to the first team, coming back to help coach them. Rooney would be an enormous asset if he was involved in any way with the academy side of things.
Essentially on all parts I do think Rooney needs redemption and in some ways the club would benefit from it. While I don't think he would make a difference in the way Zat is suggesting (i.e. he himself is not world class) for younger players they will feel they can learn a lot from him. The stories he can give them about Van Nistlerooy, Owen, Ronaldo, Giggs, Scholes, Zlatan, Pogba and how they approach the game. I also think, anybody in the game of football takes a phone call from Wayne Rooney. He seems a sociable lad too, who can help them bed in.
As for his football ability it is no surprise to me that United did what few teams have done and won at Burnley with him in on Saturday. It doesn't surprise me he scored the winning goal. He again, in an understated way played very well and marshalled the game. As fans we build up new younger players too quickly and write older ones off too quickly. He'd offer our young squad and our club an awful lot.
